I go away for a weekend and return to topics of Christianity fading to
natural selection and Taoist memes... Amidst all this range, there seems to
be a community personality emerging on this list... does anybody agree? David?
Very interesting, this list always mixes it up in such a controversial
manner, yet maintains an underlying civility and "esprit de corps". I feel
really good about this, which says a lot...since most "online communities"
are parties of catatonic schizos drooling in their mirrored corners. Not
here, thank dynamic Self-Adaptive Processes [an interesting take on a Bucky
Fuller excercise: in public conversation, replace the word 'God' with
'Creative Process' or a similarly appropriate non-theological term]
* * *
Now, the above comments about divinatory devices such as Tarot, (or
astrology or runes, etc, for that matter) coincide with a tangent of mine as
of late... and before y'all go slamming the great wooden ruler of
pseudo-science contrition against me arse, let me explain that I don't find
these "occult" systems at all useful as tools of "true" objective insight,
but rather as valid (grapple grapple) "creativity" tools.
Really, it makes perfect sense: take a system of archetypal memes
from the human experience (75+ aspects as expressed in the tarot cards, or
hundreds as expressed in astrological configurations) and assemble them in a
grammar/syntax that lends itself to proactive interpretation... yes, there
is a manner of organization that results from these memetic catalysts (hell,
read the novels of Thomas Pynchon... he embodies the complex overlap of the
Esoteric and Scientific... he has this down cold!!).
Try this idea out: let's screw the truth value of whether or not
Tarot is somehow wired to a metaphysical reality (a highly improbable
reality, I believe...although the brilliant Dr. Jung did his damndest w/
regards to the *I Ching* and synchronicity, it will likely remain
scientifically unverifiable), despite this, the interpretative value of the
so-called "divinatory systems" is quite high. As implied above, it is simply
a rather unique manner of memetic recombination, both chaotic and
negentropic... perhaps it's time that we pulled this meme complex out of the
medieval closet and re-addressed it in terms more amenable to 21st century
thought. An entire class of knowledge tools might reside in these systems if
we tweaked it correctly...
Brad